Articles of clothing, apparel, shoes, accessories, and the like, for athletes and sports participants are known in the art. They are constantly evolving to assist sports participants improve performance in the sport as well as to decrease injuries or physical wear and tear to their body. This is important due to increased player-safety awareness and the personal as well as financial consequences of sports injuries to athletes. As a result increased amount of research and funding is being poured into providing improved clothing, apparel, shoes, accessories, and the like, for athletes and sports players.
Athletes and sports players nowadays participate in sports at various competitive levels. These include, for example, intra-school, intra-college, and professional levels. General sports participants, however, play sports for the fun of the sport, for general exercise, or as a social or entertainment activity. But in each circumstance and at every level, the sport and its risks remain unchanged. There is a perpetual need for safety as well as a performance advantage because they are always beneficial to a sports player, and the player's clothing, apparel, shoes or accessories are generally designed to help provide such benefits.
Athletes and sports players participate in a countless number of sports. Typical and more popular sports include soccer, football, baseball, basketball, etc. However, the comprehensive list is virtually endless, with sports like volleyball, lacrosse, field hockey, squash, badminton, cricket, tennis, fencing, table tennis, handball, and more. But no matter the sport, the desired underlying goal remains the same—enhanced player safety and enhanced performance in the sport—and the player's clothing, apparel, shoes or accessories are generally designed to help provide such benefits.
Sports are physically strenuous activities which are usually quite demanding on the human body. Sudden movements due to the quick responsiveness required by the sport take their toll on the player's body during a game. These movements come in all shapes and forms, and usually require a twist or torsion of a limb or a portion of the body. Such twists and torsions are internally damaging to the human body, such as to the muscles, ligaments, joints, bones, and the like. When severe enough, such twists and torsions can result in injury to the player, sometimes even long-term or permanent injury, knocking the player out of the sport.
An example of a sport that frequently requires quick or sudden twists or torsion by players is soccer. The players are constantly running up and down the field as the ball routinely changes direction. The players continuously have to reorient themselves in response to the changing direction of play. If a player is directly involved with the ball, he may selectively change the direction of play by kicking the ball in a different direction, or even kick a reverse shot. Such a reverse shot could exert up to a 180 degree torsion in the player's body. Further, because the energy expended in kicking a soccer ball requires excessive force by a player, such torsional forces on the player's body are potentially dangerous and can cause injury, particularly to the player's knee, ankle, and muscular structure, some of which may be irreversible.
Another problem players experience is maintaining reliable footing as they make a difficult reverse shot or a shot that causes torsional stress on their body. Shoes with cleats designed to provide a non-slip footing may plant the player's foot firmly on the ground, but as the player's body twists or contorts to kick the ball in a different direction with force with his other foot, or knee, the resulting torsional stress on the ankle, knee, bones and muscles can be severe and damaging as the firmly-planted first foot does not yield.
Sports players and institutions who support or sponsor players typically look at apparel and gear to help prevent such injuries, and to assist players in making such difficult athletic maneuvers. Improved shoes, medical wraps, elastic bandages, etc, are some solutions that have been implemented towards these goals. However, these solutions have limited effectiveness and restrict the player's attempts at sudden or complex athletic maneuvers. They almost never assist the player's torsional maneuvers. Further, they carry only a small ability to help decrease the likelihood of injury to the player.
The problem of providing reliable footing is usually solved by cleats or spikes under the soles of shoes that tend to grip the ground and prevent slippage as the player puts his weight on his foot inside his shoes. Such cleats, however, have narrow edges and small crevices that tend to accumulate debris such as grass, mud, soil, and the like. This debris tends to interfere with the design and function of the cleats, and sometime may accumulate enough to cause discomfort or unstable footing for the player.
Cleats or spikes under the soles of shoes designed to grip the ground and prevent slippage have an additional drawback of the potential for inflicting injury during play. If a player wearing such shoes falls, or steps on another fallen player, or even engages in an aggressive maneuver with his foot such as kicking a soccer ball aggressively or at a height, there is an inherent risk of injury to the player himself or to other players from the relatively sharp cleats and spikes on the soles of his shoes.
Accordingly, there is a need for gear or apparel to help sports players execute complex athletic actions, such as torsional maneuvers, and to help decrease the likelihood of injury while executing such complex athletic actions. Ideally, there is a need for gear or apparel that would both help sports participants execute complex athletic actions, such as torsional maneuvers, as well as help decrease the likelihood of injury while executing such complex athletic actions. There is also a need for cleats that would not accumulate debris while a player is engaged in a sport. There is also a need for cleats with a shape and design that carries a decreased likelihood of injury to players while playing the sport.